Email: Ummmm

Hey, Malstrom

Young, hot women run the other way if you play video games in general, I don’t know why we’re splitting hairs about anime.

Video games are expensive (money not spent on her), take a lot of personal time (time not spent on her), are make believe (you could be out working and making her more money) and don’t confer any coolness or social status (to make her look better among her peers without actually having to do anything).

Some guy playing video games isn’t going to be seen as strange to women today (depending on the game). But I say anime is still a major red flag to most women. I think this is showing up with market movement as men, in their choice of games, wants something that is more ‘manly’. There is also a fun correlation of death of game genres when they adopt anime.

The shmup was extremely popular. The shmup was so bad ass to perfection that it got a little bit more bad ass which inverted it, flipping the scales, to a cute-em-up with shops full of anime girls and anime girl logos.

When Tetris games, once all the rage, went anime, they were done.

When adventure games, once all the rage, went anime, they were done.

Now we have platformers, once all the rage, all going anime. They will be done.

JRPGs, once all the rage, went anime. Who cares about the JRPG today?

Anime, the ‘apple of culture’ from the Japanese Tree, swings and dances to the tune of consumers wanting to be ‘more cultured’ and Japanese makers wishing to ‘export culture’. The problem is that anime is poison. The entire culture of Japan is rejected left and right by all places of fertility. Japan has no fertility, no births, just a dying nation, males who refuse to be men and females who refuse to be women. It is great offense to nature itself. There is a reason why you see fertile consumers react with horror to anime while the infertile ones, the Otaku and Bronies and all, are attracted to it.

“This is ridiculous!” cries the reader.

It may be. But it may not be also. Video games are consumer spending. Consumer spending largely revolves around men and women being what they are. There is a reason why sexy women grace products. Men do not buy expensive cars just to go from point A to point B.

What everyone needs to come to grips with is that Nintendo IPs are not a celebration of Japanese culture but of Western culture… something Miyamoto and others are very quick to try to deny (but too late! Old interviews reveal it to be the truth).

Donkey Kong- King Kong, a Western movie.

Mario- Plumber from Brooklyn. Blue-Collar Worker. Mario is the ‘every man’, almost the opposite of a super-hero. Instead of a superhero in the real world, Mario is the normal blue-collar worker in a fantastical world. What is this fantastical world? The Mushroom Kingdom is Alice in Wonderland.

Zelda- Based on Western RPGs which were based on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, a Western work based off of Western mythologies (which may or may not have parallels to Eastern mythology). A guy with a sword and shield, in celtic wonderland, trying to save the princess. We clearly know this. Zelda 2, which Nintendo intensely hates, is a celebration of the Sleeping Beauty western myth theme. Ocarina of Time, the idea of going back and forward in time, is a Western concept. In Western civilization, time is linear. Outside the West, it is more circular.

Metroid- Based off of the movie Alien and Aliens. Android in a Metro. Metroid.

“But Malstrom! How dare you say this! You have no proof that the Western market rejects Japanese culture such as anime.”

Look at the 1980s and 1990s. Look at all the games that stayed in Japan. They stayed in Japan because they were too ‘japanese’ and thought to not sell in the West. And you know what? No one from the West is interested in those games even today aside from passionate fans.

An Eastern developer has to make sure the game can fit the entire world and not be too anime. The Western developer, however, can just go with what he thinks is cool and have the game sell everywhere. Blizzard made Starcraft with the intention of being cool and as an homage to sci-fi (I know, I am part of a group listed in the Special Thanks in the credits). Much of Starcraft was inspired by Starship Troopers. Despite how ‘American’ Starcraft was, it became a massive hit in South Korea.

Nintendo games become massive hits in the West only when they are devoid of their Japanese culture. The more Japanese culture that is in it, the worse the Nintendo game does. Cell-shaded Zelda. Metroid Other M. Anime galore.